by Dr. William H. Dodson

I was Superintendent of the Pearl Public Schools in Pearl, Mississippi, when the first major school shooting occurred in America on October 1, 1997, in my home district. At that time a 16-year-old student named Luke Woodham killed two of his classmates and injured seven others as they tried to flee from his shooting frenzy. Although my Transportation Director gave me a full account of what had occurred as we drove from the Central Office to the school after the tragedy, it was not enough to prepare me for what I was about to see.

That tragedy has both shaped and overshadowed my professional career and has consumed portions of my personal life. I have analyzed the circumstances and conditions that turned a high-school sophomore into a murderer. I have investigated the lives, past and present, of … Read More »